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They don’t make economic sense when the only economic concern is to generate private wealth for the owner of the company and it shareholders at a consistent yea
by ixtli 7y ago
They don’t make economic sense when the only economic concern is to generate private wealth for the owner of the company and it shareholders at a consistent year-over-year rate.
If your economic concern includes growing a middle class that is motivated to spend money and to take business risks then they make a lot of sense.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoThey don't make sense because calculations for pension liabilities require knowing economic conditions decades into the future. I have yet to come across someone that prescient.
- apendleton 7y agoThis is true for any way of providing for retirement, though. Eliminating pensions just transfers the risk from companies to individuals. It's clear why companies would want this, but not clear it's societally beneficial.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoThe best model I've seen is to raise families that stick together, and support each other. As parents age, children and cousins support them, and they age, so on and so forth. Unfortunately, this requires a lot of compromise, and I see that once financial independence is achieved, it is difficult for families to continue this way of life. There's also other facets of modern life that may not be conducive to this lifestyle.
- ixtli 7y agogenerational wealth is how real wealth is built: nearly all riches are inherited. the main thing i have learned with age is how incredibly important having a very very strong support system is, whether thats family, friends, a club, school, spouse, children, or whatever. you can. not. survive. without this. Its disconcerting how completely i overlooked this in my youth. independence in the context you describe is not something that should be lauded in our society and specifically parents that drive their children away should, in the great majority of cases, be vilified along with the typical narrative of celebrating the child's victory at overcome adverse conditions.
- redis_mlc 7y ago> how incredibly important having a very very strong support system is Agreed. Try recovering from surgery alone sometime to find out!
- ixtli 7y agothis is a great refutation of the current status quo where people are required to plan decades into the future for their own retirements. indeed no one is capable of this.